Monday, August 16, 2010

Flop Shots with Shawn Clement

Here's a very good video done by 3Jack Top 50 Instructor, Shawn Clement, on the flop shot.

One thing should be noted, in the past almost 2 years since I've started the blog I have asked about a dozen current and former PGA Tour pros on hitting pitches and short game shots and most of them were not big fans of hitting the flop shot.

Why?

Because ideally they want to get the ball on the green and rolling as soon as possible in the flight and roll of the golf ball. That's why the Rule of 12 chipping method appealed to me...it gets the golfer the right club to hit good shots by getting the ball on the green and rolling as soon as possible.

I find the issue with trying to carry the ball more is that it's more difficult to hit the spot if it's further away from you and there's other factors like controlling the spin. But, some people have had such good success with it, like Hubert Green, that using a SW is all they need.

Raymond Floyd is also considered with Green as one of the greatest chippers of all time and he used a bunch of different clubs. Mickelson was a lot like Green and usually sticking to a SW or a LW, but eventually has changed to more of a Rule of 12 method.

Either way, if you're using the flop shot a lot, you're either using it too much or you're hitting a lot of poor approach shots into the green.